


Changes

by Edom



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Anti-Debbie, Anti-Mikey, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-13
Updated: 2010-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-13 04:38:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edom/pseuds/Edom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What's up with the changes in Justin's appearance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opportunities

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: Taytay4936, I couldn't do any of it without you

Towards the end of Justin’s first semester at PIFA, he got the opportunity to go to a sister school in Los Angeles.

He and Brian had been having some problems, or rather, Justin had some problems with Brian and his refusal to talk about his feelings.

Justin didn’t want to lose Brian, but he felt that he probably would even if he stayed in Pittsburgh. He talked to his mother, Daphne, and Brian about whether he should accept the offer or not.

His mother was ambivalent; on one hand, she didn’t want Justin that far away, especially not so soon after the bashing, but on the other hand, she figured some time away from Brian would maybe give him the opportunity to meet someone closer to his own age, see that Brian wasn’t the only man in the world.

Daphne, who knew the whole reason why he wanted to go, as the only one, thought it was a great idea. She just told him to make sure he reminded Brian of his existence on a regular basis.

Brian felt it was a great opportunity for Justin, who always wanted to be an animator, something the LA school specialized in. He also knew that Justin wasn’t happy with the way things were. He knew what it would take to keep Justin with him, and even though he knew he would miss him terribly, he wasn’t quite ready for that just yet.

All this resulted in Justin leaving for the west coast a week after the New Year. He and Brian had a long talk where Brian promised that the loft would still be Justin’s home when the semester was over.

Justin wrote long e-mails to Brian every couple of days where he told him all about what he learned and how much he missed Brian. Not once did he mention a word about what he did outside school, or whether or not he made any friends. He didn’t talk about how hot the guys were or how he had fucked this surfer dude, or that movie star. He only told Brian how much he looked forward to Brian fucking him.

Brian answered every single e-mail, though none of his replies were ever as long or as sincere as Justin’s, but he answered, nonetheless.


	2. Homecoming

Finally, the day came when Justin would come home. It was two days before Brian’s birthday and a little week before the anniversary of the prom.

Jennifer had insisted on picking him up at the airport, and he had only agreed if she promised to take him straight to the loft. His plane landed at 8 AM, and he wanted to acclimate before Brian came home from work.

Brian had taken the day off. That little fact wasn’t something he had told anybody, but he wanted some time alone with Justin. Good or bad news, he wanted time to digest it before facing anybody. He would have put good money on it being bad news, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. He hadn’t even told anybody when Justin would come home, and he knew that Justin hadn’t either, since they all asked him every single day.

Brian was not sure whether or not Justin was still his, not that he had ever acknowledged that he ever was before. The only thing he knew for a fact was that he had missed the kid more than he was ever going to admit, even to himself.

Brian was pacing his loft, and even as he chastised himself for it, told himself that he was behaving like a lesbian, he couldn’t seem to stop.

When he heard the elevator, he almost ran to the door, but managed to stop himself before he lost all sense of queer decorum. He waited for a knock on the door that never came; instead, he heard a key in the lock, and then, the door rattled open.

He stood frozen to the spot at the sight before him. It was Justin, Brian would recognize those eyes anywhere, but those might also be the only things that still resembled the young man that had gone to LA four months ago. Then, Justin smiled and Brian amended that thought because the smile was still the same, too. Actually, it was more reminiscent of the person he had been before the bashing. Brian couldn’t remember seeing him smile like that after he came out of the hospital.

Before Brian had a chance to react to any of it, Justin had closed the door, dropped his bag, and run into his arms. He only just had time to catch him, and then, they were kissing. When they had to break apart in order to breathe, they held each other tight and both breathed a sigh of relief.

Justin was so fucking relieved; he hadn’t been sure what his reception would be like, but never in a million years had he imagined that Brian would be at home, looking like he had been pacing the floor.

He did see the shock on Brian’s face, but they could deal with that later; right now, he just wanted Brian.

They tore each other’s clothes off, sucking, licking, and nibbling on any piece of exposed skin they could reach, desperate to taste each other again. The bed seemed too far away, so they collapsed on the couch once they were both naked. Brian quickly found a condom and some lube. He put the condom on and smeared it with lube. He didn’t bother preparing Justin, just wanting to drive home as soon as possible. He regretted that decision when Justin cried out in pain. He was a lot tighter than Brian had thought he would be.

“It’s been a while.”

Justin blushed and looked a little embarrassed. The implication of what Justin had said hit Brian like a ton of bricks. It could only mean that Justin hadn’t bottomed since he left Pittsburgh some four months ago. He hurried to pull out again, even if he were only in about half an inch. He put some lube on his fingers and carefully prepared Justin before pushing in again inch by inch.

When he was fully imbedded, he stopped moving to give Justin time to adjust. Justin was breathing heavily and his cock was only half-hard, but after a while, he pushed up against Brian, who slowly pulled out a little, angled his hips slightly differently, and then pushed in again equally slowly. Justin moaned and his cock hardened when Brian hit his prostate dead on.

When Brian found out he had the right angle, he moved in and out at a steady pace. Both of them moaned and Brian leaned down to capture Justin’s lips in a messy kiss. Soon, Brian couldn’t keep the pace steady anymore and his movements became erratic. He wrapped one of his hands around Justin’s cock and pumped in rhythm with his hips. They came at almost the same time, moaning each other’s name.

Brian collapsed on top of Justin, and they were both breathing heavily.

“Damn, Sunshine, that was hot.”

“Yeah, it was.”

Brian rolled off and stripped off the condom. He took some Kleenex from the coffee table and cleaned them up a little. He lay down on top of Justin and smoothed his hair away from his face. Justin smiled at him, looking thoroughly sated.

“God, I missed this; missed you.”

The only answer Brian gave to that was kissing him on the lips before getting up and pulling Justin with him to bed.


	3. Reasons

The next almost twenty-four hours were spent fucking, sucking, and rimming, only interrupted by the occasional shower, even if they didn’t actually stop fucking to do that, and to eat some food they ordered in.

They finally surfaced the next morning when they went to the diner before Justin was expected at Daphne’s.

The gang was all at the diner when they came in, and they all gaped at Justin until Emmett recovered enough to jump up and grab him in a fierce hug that went on just a little too long for Brian’s taste.

“Emmett,”

he growled, and the man in question let go with a grin.

“My, so possessive.” He winked at Justin. “It’s so good to see you baby. When did you get home?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“And why is this the first we see of you?”

Deb didn’t sound too pleased.

“Give the lad a break, Deb. We had four months of fucking to catch up on.”

Brian had his tongue in his cheek and they all laughed before the rest of them went to give Justin their own welcome home hugs.

They sat down and ordered breakfast. Justin told about his LA adventure while they ate. Once he was finished, he gave Brian a kiss before leaving for his appointment with Daphne.

As soon as he was out the door, the questions began.

“What the fuck has he been doing out there in LaLa land?”

Mel was the first to get a word in.

“From what I can understand, not much more than studying and working out,”

Brian answered with a somewhat perplexed expression on his face. Justin did look like he had spent a lot of time in a gym; they all had to agree on that.

He had been wearing a pair of very tight light blue jeans that showed off, not only his spectacular ass and considerable endowment, but also the fact that his thighs were now very muscular.

On his upper body, he wore a white wife-beater that clung to his torso and revealed a sculptured chest. His arms were bare, showing the large muscles in this shoulders and arms. Emmett commented on all that, almost salivating.

“Yeah, and he’s got a six-pack almost more defined than mine.”

Brian sounded exasperated.

“I’m more curious as to why the fuck he would color his hair dark. It was so beautiful when it was blond.”

That remark earned Ted a death glare from Brian, who knew Ted’s attraction to blond twinks. The theories flew back and forth; the only one not giving his opinion was Ben, not until the others had talked themselves silent.

“I think I know exactly why he dyed his hair AND worked out so much.”

Seven pairs of eyes looked at him expectantly.

“Brian, think about it, what do your tricks look like?”

They all thought about that, and had to agree that they mostly all looked like Brian himself: dark and well muscled.

“But he’s never cared about that before; he’s always been convinced that Brian loved him.”

Lindsay was not at all sure she bought that as an explanation.

“Yeah, he’s the most confident, self-assured kid I’ve ever met.”

You could hear the envy in Ted’s voice, and the rest of them nodded their agreement.

“I think you all remember him from before the bashing. Remember, I only met him after, and the boy you all describe is not the young man I know at all. When I first met him, my impression was of an intelligent, kind, generous, but very insecure young man, and I have to admit I couldn’t figure out how he had kept Brian’s interest for a whole year. Then, I heard you all talk about him, how he had all but stalked Brian and insinuated himself in all of your lives to such an extent that you all thought of him as one of you.”

“Ben, I know that you are very smart, but you haven’t known Justin as long as the rest of us have, and you haven’t spent as much time with him as we have.”

Michael sounded sincere, if a little condescending.

“I know, and that’s part of the problem; like I said, you all remember the pre-bashing Justin, and I’ve never met that boy. Remember that somebody tried to kill him; something like that changes you fundamentally.”

Brian cringed visibly at that, but he had to agree. It had changed him after all, and he had just witnessed it.

“Ok. I’ll concede that we might still expect him to act and react like he did before, but what does that have to do with him dyeing his hair and apparently working out like a fiend?”

“I’m sure you know that your tricking bothers him, right?”

Ben looked at Brian, who bristled at the implied criticism, but nodded nonetheless; he did know, after all.

“Well, consider a young man who doesn’t really remember what it was like to be that confident, to be that sure of his place in your life. He’s started to question himself, and we all know that you did nothing to appease him. In fact, the only thing he ever heard about his place in your life was that he was your little stalker, how he was only living with you because he took a bat to the head and you feel sorry for him and you feel guilty.”

“What the fuck? I never fucking said anything like that to him.”

Brian was pissed; he may be an asshole, but not that big of one.

“No. I’ll give you that; that’s mostly been Michael.” At that, Brian sent a dirty look Michael’s way, and was just about to say something, but Ben continued. “But the rest of them have made it painfully clear to him that you are a bad choice to bet on, that he really shouldn’t expect you to ever change. Taking all these things into consideration, it really isn’t all that strange that he has done whatever he could to try to make himself into what he thinks you want.”

The last was said while Ben looked pointedly at Brian.

“Even if all that is true, why the fuck would he care what anybody says about him? The only opinion that matters is his own.”

“You’re a hypocrite, Kinney. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody more concerned about appearances than you.”

Mel, as always, told it like she saw it.

“And in any case, when you hear something enough times, you start to believe it. Even if you never told Justin any of those things, you never told him any different either, and you never once told the others to shut the fuck up, something you are usually not shy to do. It has to register with him as you agreeing with them. As you know, actions speak louder than words.”

Brian thought about it, and had to, grudgingly, agree that Justin might have seen it like agreement on his part when he didn’t refute any of what had been said. Brian actually liked Justin better the way he had looked before, but it was true that Justin had no way of knowing that.

He said goodbye to the others and went to work. He had a lot of thinking to do, and since he didn’t have any meetings today, and no pressing campaigns to work on, he might as well do it there.


	4. Decisions

He thought about it all through the day. He did work, but every once in a while, he thought about Justin and what Ben had said. First, he had to figure out if he believed it. If that was really the reason behind Justin’s transformation. It really didn’t take all that long to acknowledge that it probably was. Next, he had to figure out what, if anything, to do about it.

He did want the blond hair back, he even missed the less defined muscles, he just wasn’t sure if he wanted Justin to know that, and if he did, how to tell him.

When Brian came home, Justin was there. He had unpacked his bag and done some laundry. When the door opened, he was sitting at the computer checking his e-mail. He turned in the chair and gave Brian a big smile that Brian couldn’t help but return.

Justin finished his mail and closed down the computer while Brian changed out of his suit and into a pair of worn black jeans and a white wife-beater. When he came down the stairs, Justin looked surprised at his choice of attire.

“Aren’t we going out tonight?”

“No, I figured we could stay in and maybe talk a little.”

“Talk? What do you want to talk about?”

Justin looked a little worried. He was afraid that Brian would tell him it was over. Maybe he just wanted to fuck Justin one last time since that was the one area where they had never had any kind of problems.

“Hey, relax.” Brian curled a hand around Justin’s neck and pulled him into his body. “I just want to hear some more of what happened in LA. I’m curious as to why you changed your looks so drastically. I want to know if your plans have changed, you know, just talk.”

Brian gave a small shrug of his shoulder as if to say it was no big deal. Justin nodded slowly and went into the kitchen.

“Should I cook some dinner or did you want to order in?”

“What would you cook with? The fridge is empty.”

Brian looked amused; Justin ought to have remembered that it always was.

“No, it’s not. I went grocery shopping after I left Daphne’s. I was afraid I’d starve otherwise.”

Justin smiled mischievously and winked at Brian, who couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped him. He had forgotten that wicked side of him.

“So, Mr. Chef, what would you make for your tired man home from a long day at the office?”

Brian had gotten into the spirit of things and Justin smiled brightly. Brian knew why; he had called himself Justin’s man and he had done it deliberately to get that exact reaction.

“How about I just make us a chicken stir-fry? You can help me cut the vegetables.”

Brian agreed and joined Justin in the kitchen. He pulled out the cutting board and a knife while Justin cleaned the vegetables. Brian peeled what needed peeling and then cut all of them into bite-sized pieces. While Brian chopped, Justin cleaned and seasoned the chicken before cutting that up, too. He put it into the wok, and when it was almost done, he added the vegetables and a little oyster sauce for flavor.

They talked while they worked, or mostly Justin talked. He told in more detail about the classes he took at the LA school and the fact that he had decided he didn’t want to work in animation, after all. The classes had been great, but the stories he heard about the work itself sounded horrible. You started out doing simple coloring, and you only got one color to work with; anytime something needed that color, it was sent to you. This could go on for several years before you ever got to draw a single line.

He had also taken some courses geared for those who wanted to work in advertising. To his surprise, he found those to be equally as interesting, and he knew that even the lowest person on the rung in an art department had some interesting tasks. He was seriously considering a career in advertising and wanted to know if Brian had any objections to that. It was his field, after all, and Justin didn’t want to encroach on it.

This new development surprised Brian, but he was not at all opposed to the idea, quite the opposite, in fact. He knew that Justin would be great at it; he had proven that before he left when he had helped Brian out in a pinch.

Brian had never told anybody this, but he one day hoped to own his own agency, and he would love nothing more than to have Justin along for the ride. He told Justin as much while he opened a bottle of white wine to go with their dinner. Justin stopped what he was doing and stared at him.

“Are you serious? You would want to work with me?”

“Of course I would. I know that you are incredibly talented and I know that you and I work well together. You get what I mean the first time I tell you something and you have great vision yourself. I would be an idiot not to want to work with you.”

At that, Justin went over and gave Brian a big kiss before going back to the stove to get the food off before it burned. He dished it out on two plates and carried it to the table. They sat down across from each other, and now, it was Brian’s turn to do the talking. He told all about the exploits of the gang while Justin had been away, and Justin laughed loudly several times when Brian talked about them. Not so much from the stories as from the exasperated tone in Brian’s voice. You could hear that he sometimes wondered how he had ended up with such idiotic friends, but you could also hear the affection.


	5. Explanations

They were both relaxed once they were done with the food, and while they cleaned up after. They brought their wine glasses to the coffee table and sat on the couch.

“So, tell me, what’s up with the makeover?”

Justin blushed, but took a deep breath before talking.

“It’s really stupid, but I saw so many blond, blue-eyed wannabe’s out there and I really didn’t want to be one of them. Everybody I met assumed I was an actor, doing something else until my big break came. I went to a hair dresser and asked him if he could make dark hair look natural on me, and when he told me he could, I told him to do it. I’m not sure I like it, but it made me less of a stereotype, and that was what was important. I’ll have it changed back as soon as I find someone who can do it without ruining my hair completely.”

Justin shrugged and Brian couldn’t figure out if he was relieved, pissed or disappointed that the reason wasn’t the one Ben had convinced him it was.

“And the new muscles?”

“Yeah, that was because a guy wouldn’t take no for an answer one of the very rare nights I was out. Nothing happened, someone came along and helped me before it got too far out of hand, but it made me realize that I was all alone out there with maybe no one to help me if it happened again, so I decided I had to be able to defend myself. I took a self defense class and worked out to get stronger.”

“When the fuck did that happen and why didn’t you tell me?”

Brian was terrified that something like that happened to Justin and he wanted to fly out to LA, find the fucker and pulverize him.

“What the fuck would you have done from the other coast, other than maybe worry about me?”

Brian relaxed a little. Justin was right; he couldn’t have done a thing from Pittsburgh. Right then, he vowed never to let Justin get that far away from him again. When that thought crossed his mind, he knew what he had to do.

“Good point.” Brian nodded and then changed the subject. “Are you going to keep up the workout regimen?”

“I don’t think so. On Liberty Avenue, nobody is stupid enough to mess with Brian Kinney’s twink,” Justin smiled a little and Brian almost blushed; he knew that’s what people thought Justin was. “but I will go with you to the gym; I’ll just dial down the weight on the machines.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Brian debated telling Justin about Ben’s theory, but the decision was taken out of his hands.

“What did you think the reason was?”

Brian looked down and sighed a little before looking at Justin.

“I actually had no idea, but Ben had a theory, and I guess we all got a little carried away and bought it.”

“What did he say?”

Justin sounded curious.

“He thought you had done it to look more like my tricks. He said it bothers you, so much so that you were willing to change yourself to be more like ‘my type’ in order to keep me interested.”

He held his breath, waiting for Justin’s reaction. It came almost right away with Justin laughing loudly.

“You know what? It could have been the reason if not for the fact that I know that you like my hair blond and you like the fact that you are stronger, more masculine than me. It makes you feel powerful and protective. Why do you think I’m going back to looking almost like I did before I left?”

Justin winked again and Brian looked at him in astonishment, because it was actually true. It did make him feel powerful and protective. Justin wasn’t effeminate in a queeny, Emmett sort of way; he was just softer, more rounded than Brian’s wiry, taut body.

Brian almost blushed again; he was a little embarrassed to have been found out. But Justin just leaned into him and gave him a kiss.

“I like it that you are stronger than me, too. It makes it easier for you to manhandle me, and I love it when you get dominant in bed; you know nothing makes me hotter than you taking charge.”

Brian growled low in his throat at that and grabbed Justin behind the head, smashing their lips together and thrusting his tongue down Justin’s throat. Justin moaned into Brian’s mouth and the sound went straight to Brian’s cock. He ripped Justin’s clothes off and turned him around to lie face down and ass up on the couch. He quickly divested himself of his own clothes and found a condom. He put it on and slicked it with lube before driving home. He didn’t stop to let Justin adjust, just started thrusting in and out forcefully. They were both panting and moaning and it was over almost too soon, both of them groaning loudly when they came. Brian fell onto Justin’s back and he collapsed onto the couch with the weight.

When he had caught his breath and could talk again, Brian said,

“I can still manhandle you even if you are stronger than you used to be, but I wouldn’t mind you going back to looking like you did before.”

Justin smiled into the sofa cushion; it was nice to hear, even if he did already know.

Brian got up off Justin and hauled him to his feet. Brian went around and turned out the lights and locked up while Justin went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. When Brian joined him, they lay next to each other on their sides looking at each other.

“God, I missed you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, Brian, I know. I’m onto you, remember? I may have lost my way for a while there after prom, but I found myself again out in LA. I think I had started to listen way too much to other people’s opinion of you, and I hate to tell you this, but none of them think too highly of you. They seem to think that you are incapable of change. That you don’t even want to entertain the idea of change.”

“I know; I found that out at the diner yesterday. After you left, Ben said some things I wasn’t aware of. I didn’t know that they all, in their own way, told you that you were a fool for believing in me; that you were setting yourself up for disappointment. I know they all said the same thing before prom, but things were very different then. I hadn’t had to think about what it would mean to lose you, a thought that never occurred to me before. The fact is, back then, I thought I wanted to get rid of you, and even if I, in the end, admitted to myself that I actually liked having you around, I wanted you gone because you were becoming too important.”

“Brian, I know all that. I have a pretty good idea how your mind works, and it’s a scary, scary place, unnecessarily so most of the time. You have to know by now that you can trust me not to take advantage of anything you give me or tell me. At least, I hope that I have proven to you that you can trust me.”

Brian moved closer and pushed Justin onto his back, rolled on top of him, and looked down into his eyes.

“You have; I do trust you, I just don’t trust myself.”

It took all of Brian’s courage to admit that, and Justin appreciated that.

“I know, but if you trust me, then, trust me when I tell you that you are a wonderful father to Gus; that boy loves you something awful, despite his young age. Trust that you are a great friend; you have done a lot of things for all of them, even if they don’t acknowledge it most of the time, or even appreciate it. But most importantly, trust that you are an amazing boyfriend.” At that, Brian wrinkled his nose. “What, you still not ready to admit that you are in a relationship?”

“That’s not it; I just hate that word: boyfriend; it makes us sound like we’re in junior high.”

“Ok, then what, lover?”

“Fuck no, that’s even worse; that somehow implies that it’s all about the sex, and even I know that we are more than that.”

Justin smiled up at him.

“Partner, then?”

Brian looked speculative for a couple of seconds, and then, he nodded.

“Yeah, that’s it. It makes it more than just a casual thing. If you’re partners you share the decisions, don’t just make them for yourself, but for the both of you. I would like it if we started doing that. We have been making a lot of decisions just for ourselves, me more than you, but I found that I liked it that you wanted to discuss your opportunity in LA with me. If it had been me, I would have probably just gone, and hoped for the best when I came home. I like your way better.”

Justin lifted his head and gave Brian a grateful kiss; it turned passionate, and both of them grew hard. Justin laid his head back down.

“I’d like that, Brian, I really would.”

Brian nodded and then kissed Justin again before making his way slowly down his body, kissing, licking and nibbling all the way. Soon they both forgot what they had been talking about and just felt.


	6. Visits

The next morning, Brian’s birthday, Justin woke up early and went quietly into the bathroom to take a piss before making his way to the kitchen to start the coffee maker and making some toast. He would have liked to make a more interesting breakfast, but he knew that Brian would never eat it.

He set the table with no frills and then went to wake up Brian with a blowjob; it was his birthday, after all. Not that Justin didn’t enjoy it almost as much as Brian did. He started at the foot of the bed and crawled under the covers to his goal. He gently spread Brian’s legs and took his balls in his mouth, one at a time. Brian’s breathing changed and his cock hardened beyond the usual morning wood, but he didn’t wake up yet. Justin then licked from base to tip, using Brian’s cock as a lollipop. When he took the head in his mouth and sucked gently, Brian woke up.

“Fuck, Sunshine, that’s the best wakeup call I’ve had since you left.”

After that, Brian didn’t say much other than grunts, moans, and groans. He came gasping Justin’s name, and then, he was well and truly awake. Justin crawled the rest of the way up to give Brian a kiss.

“Happy birthday.”

Brian glared at him for all of two seconds, before smiling a little at him.

“Thanks. Since it’s my birthday, would you grant me a wish?”

“I thought I just did.”

Justin smiled wickedly and Brian raised his eyebrow.

“I meant one of another kind, twat.”

Justin shrugged.

“Sure, if I can.”

“Will you let me call Pierre, my hairdresser, and hear if he can fit you in sometime today? You know he’ll treat your hair gently; I wouldn’t let him anywhere near mine if he wasn’t very good.”

He had his tongue in his cheek and Justin chuckled.

“Sure, if you think he can do it; I trust you.”

“Thanks.”

“For now, breakfast is ready, and then, it’s time for a shower and work.”

“You made me breakfast? Thank you for not giving it to me on the bed; that would have been way too lesbianic.”

“Why do you think I didn’t? I think your advanced years must be affecting your memory. I keep telling you that I’m on to you and you keep forgetting.”

Justin jumped out of bed when he said that. Brian hurried after him and caught him around the waist before he was even down the stairs. He threw Justin on the bed and followed him down. He tickled him until Justin begged for mercy.

“Who are you calling advanced in years, twat?”

“No one; you are still young and beautiful.” With that, Justin grew a little more serious. “To me, you always will be, even if you get wrinkles everywhere and lose all your hair.”

Brian wasn’t sure if he should be offended that Justin would think such a thing would ever happen, or grateful for the sentiment. He opted for the latter.

“Thank you, Sunshine. Now, let’s get some of that breakfast you promised me.”

He got up and helped Justin up, too. They went down to the dining room table and sat down. When they were done eating, Justin took the dishes and Brian went to get the shower ready.

After a very satisfying shower fuck, they both got dressed, Brian in his Armani and Justin in jeans and a t-shirt.

Brian called his hair stylist and got an appointment for Justin at noon.

“So, what are you going to do all morning before you have to be there?”

“I thought I’d pay Vic a visit. I’ve missed him when I was in LA.”

“He’ll be happy to see you; he asked about you all the time; he knew you’d be writing to me. How about you drive me to work, and then, you can have the Jeep the rest of the day?”

Justin beamed at that and gave him a kiss.

“You trust me with the Jeep? Wow, you have evolved.”

He laughed loudly at the offended look on Brian’s face.

“Keep it up, twat, and the offer is off the table.”

Justin sidled up to him, blinking seductively, and gave him a little kiss in way of an apology.

“Hrmph, that’s what I thought.”

Brian had a haughty expression on his face, and after a couple of seconds, they both started laughing.

“Do you have any plans for your birthday tonight?”

“Yeah, staying away from the gang.”

Justin could see that he was thinking about the disastrous birthday last year.

“How about when I pick you up, we go somewhere, just the two of us, and fuck until your birthday is over?”

Brian brightened considerably at that; he had looked a little annoyed at the thought of death day cake, coffins, and black balloons.

“That sounds like a plan. Could you pack a bag for the both of us? I want the grey Armani, the matching shirt and a black tie. Don’t forget underwear and socks.”

He sounded disgusted at the last two items. He hates wearing both, much preferring to go commando and barefoot.

Justin nodded.

“Will you make reservations somewhere? I have no idea where we should go, and it’s your birthday, after all.”

He batted his eyes again and Brian pulled him in by the back of his neck and gave him a little bite to the lower lip before answering.

“Yes, I’ll make the reservations. Just pick me up all packed and ready to go at five.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They went down to the Jeep and Justin got in the driver’s side with Brian next to him. The ride to Vanguard was silent, each of them contemplating how to use the time away from the gang.

Justin let Brian out in front of the office, and then, he was off. He drove to Deb’s house and let himself in without knocking, something he had done at that house since moving in there.

“Hey, Vic,”

Justin greeted the man who came out of the kitchen to see who was at the door.

“Hey, Princess, welcome home. Look at you; you look terrible with that hair.”

Vic had never been anything but completely honest with Justin.

“Yeah, I know; I go back to being blond at noon. I have an appointment with Brian’s hairdresser.”

Vic nodded.

“Good. Now, why did you change it in the first place? And don’t you try to tell me that story Ben had them all convinced was true; I know you better than that. Didn’t want to be a stereotype?”

Justin laughed.

“Yeah, not really. Everybody I met was convinced I was an aspiring actor, and I hated that. Every conversation went the same way, and when I told them I wasn’t, they didn’t fucking believe me. Assholes.”

Now, it was Vic’s turn to laugh.

“Come on in, I’ll make us some tea and you can tell me all about it.”

The next couple of hours were spent just catching up on each other’s lives. Justin and Vic had always liked each other and Vic was the only one not telling Justin he could do better than Brian. He knew Brian better than the others, too. They had long conversations about things Brian would never tell anybody else, except maybe Justin now.


	7. Returns

Justin left with a promise to come by more often now that he was home. He drove to Brian’s hairdresser and parked the Jeep. When he came into the salon, Pierre looked up, took one look at him and almost shrieked.

“What did you do to your hair? Brian told me you wanted to be blond again, but I never imagined you had done something that horrible to it. Oh my god, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Now, come sit here.”

Justin was shown to a chair in front of a mirror and Pierre looked at him from all angles. It was apparent that he was not pleased that anybody would do something like that to their hair. Justin didn’t much care, as long as it was transformed back to the way it was before Pierre could bitch all he wanted while doing it.

“I wish I knew what color I was going for. What it looked like before, I don’t like that I have to guess. What if I guess wrong? Brian is going to kill me if I mess up his partner’s hair.”

Pierre was still muttering to himself, but Justin heard every word. He hadn’t heard Brian’s conversation with Pierre, and it surprised him that Brian had called him his partner. He smiled brightly before he bent down to pick up his messenger bag and took a picture out of one of the pockets. It was a picture of him and Brian from pride.

“Will this work?”

He gave Pierre the picture and he clapped his hands in glee.

“Ohh, this is perfect. Now, I know what color to give you. I’ll just go mix it. Make yourself comfortable; you are going to be in that chair for a while, honey.”

Pierre was happier than a pig in shit now; he had a specific goal, not just an assumed one. Justin smiled brightly at the similarities between Brian’s hairdresser and Emmett; both of them were out and proud queens.

Pierre came back a little while later with a bowl of the color.

“Now, I could have chosen to bleach your hair, but I don’t think the result would have been very good, and I really don’t want to incur the wrath of King Kinney; that man can terrify me like none other, so I’m going to color it in your natural color; that way, there will be no difference when it grows out.”

“Sounds good.”

Justin nodded and Pierre started. He still looked a little scared, and it amused Justin that people were that scared of Brian. He knew what a pussycat the man really was. Pierre went to work restoring Justin to blond status while Justin just sat and trusted his hair in Pierre’s hands; he figured if Brian trusted him with his, he must be good.

After about two hours, Pierre was satisfied that he was done. He turned Justin towards the mirror and the blond was once again. Justin was happy; he looked almost like himself again. He paid Pierre and thanked him profusely, promising to tell Brian that he had been great. Pierre shone like a sun when Justin left, secure in the knowledge that Brian wouldn’t kill him.

Justin got into the Jeep and drove to the diner. He hadn’t had lunch yet and he was starving. As it was, most of the gang was there and they all did a double take when they saw him.

“Baby, you’re blond again.”

“Yeah, I never meant to keep the brown hair once I came home, and it had served its purpose.”

“What, you think Brian realized that he actually prefers blonds and now he’ll stop tricking?”

Justin looked at Michael like he lost his mind.

“No, it set me apart from all the blond, blue-eyed wannabe’s in Hollywood. In Pittsburgh, we’re not a dime a dozen like they are out there.”

They all gaped at him; they never even thought of that possibility. No one was more surprised than Ben; he was really convinced that he was right.

“That’s really the only reason you dyed your hair?”

he asked, not at all convinced Brian wasn’t at least a small part of the reason.

“Yeah, I got so fucking tired of people wondering if my agent was any good, did he or she get me any good test shots. When I told them I am NOT an actor, they didn’t fucking believe me, just thought I didn’t have any good prospects and didn’t want to admit it. It was starting to piss me off after about two weeks, so I dyed my hair, or had a hair dresser do it, actually.”

“And that’s why you went blond again? No one in Pittsburgh is going to suggest that you’re an actor just waiting for your chance.”

Emmett said that with his usual flair and hand gestures. Justin smiled brightly at him and then started laughing.

“If I were, I deserve to wait for my break forever.”


	8. Plans

The rest of them laughed with him, except Michael, who was not at all amused that Justin had that much confidence; he knew that Brian liked a man to be sure of himself. He had hoped that Justin had reached a new low. He was absolutely sure that Brian had hated how Justin had groveled for every scrap of affection from him in the beginning; he never even realized he had done the same thing for 17 years, and that he was still doing it now. What he didn’t take into consideration either was the fact that Brian would have cut Justin out of his life if he had truly hated it. The fact that Justin was still around for Brian to go to his prom was a testament to the fact that Brian liked having Justin around.

“Do you want to help us kidnap Brian later? We are going to take him to a plastic surgeon that is in on the joke; he is going to show Brian all the things that can be done with Botox and hair plugs. It’s going to be hilarious.”

Michael was grinning like an idiot while he said that, and again, Justin had to wonder how well he actually knew his so-called best friend. He could see that Emmett was not too sure that it was a good idea, but he appeared to be the only one. Mel would do anything to make Brian feel bad, Lindsay was as clueless as Michael, Ted was so envious of Brian he had a hard time thinking rationally where he was concerned and Ben always stayed out of it where Brian was concerned when Michael was on a roll. Justin told them that he really didn’t think Brian would think that was funny and that he would have no part of it, and under any circumstances, he and Brian had plans of their own.

Michael tried to make him change their plans, saying that whatever they had planned would pale compared to the plastic surgeon. When Justin wouldn’t budge, Michael just said that they would see who Brian would agree with when they came to pick him up. Justin wisely didn’t tell them that he was picking Brian up from work and they were leaving directly.

After leaving the diner, Justin went to the loft to pack their bags. Brian had left a message on his answering machine, reminding him to pack toiletries. He packed the bags and then went to PIFA’s website to look at the courses he would have to take over the next three years to graduate qualified to work in advertising; he had made up his mind, that was what he wanted to do; Brian’s confidence that he would be good at it was a big incentive, but he had already been 95% sure before leaving LA.

The course load didn’t look too daunting; actually, it looked really interesting. He was looking forward to it; he relished a challenge. If he didn’t, he would have given up on Brian within the first month of meeting him.

At four-thirty, he grabbed the bags and made sure the loft was locked up before leaving. He put the bags in the back of the Jeep, and then, he was off for Vanguard. Brian was waiting for him in front of the building, and when he saw some of his colleagues looking disapprovingly at Justin and the Jeep, he leaned in to give his partner a deep kiss. He really couldn’t stand bigots of any kind.

Justin drove while Brian gave directions; they ended up on the Pennsylvania turnpike. It looked like they were on their way to New York, and when Justin looked questioningly at Brian, he smiled.

“I took the day off tomorrow; I figured we could spend the weekend in New York. Go to all the galleries and museums you want to. Look at the city, walk around hand in hand in Chelsea and forget all about the Pitts, baseball bats and clueless friends. We can be as lesbianic as we want, since no one knows us from Adam.”

Brian had his tongue in his cheek when he looked at Justin, who was floored; he loved that idea, and he really didn’t know what he was going to do on the first anniversary of the bashing. He was a little afraid that Brian had wanted to drink, drug, and fuck the memory of that day away at the baths or Babylon. He had no idea what he was going to do if that was the case; he really wanted to spend the day with Brian, but knew that he couldn’t very well force the man to do anything. This was like a dream come true, except it was not a dream he had ever dared to dream.

“Jesus, Brian, if you don’t stop surprising me like that, I might have to stay with you forever, and you are never going to be able to get rid of me.”

He sent a quick smile Brian’s way, and he smiled mischievously back.

“Maybe that’s my plan.”


	9. Realizations

Justin couldn’t stop smiling all the way to New York after that, and Brian really wasn’t any better off. They arrived in New York just in time for dinner. They checked in to the hotel and then went exploring the neighborhood on foot. They found a little quaint Italian restaurant, not much more than a hole in the wall. They had a really enjoyable evening, just eating some good food, talking about everything and nothing.

Justin told Brian about Michael’s brilliant plan. Brian looked thoroughly shocked for a second, and then, he just looked resigned.

“I just don’t get why he doesn’t know that I really wouldn’t think that’s fun. I really think he still believes that I think and behave like I did when I was fourteen.”

Justin’s heart was breaking for Brian; he could see that it really bothered him that his best friend couldn’t see past his own hang-ups and see the person Brian had become.

“Brian, I know that you love Michael, but it really isn’t your fault if he is unable or unwilling to see that you have changed. You have done nothing wrong, trust me.”

Brian’s head snapped up at that; it had become some kind of code for him after their conversation the night before. He took a deep breath and really thought about what Justin had said.

“But Deb told me that I kept him on a short leash, tugging on it whenever I felt like it.”

Justin took his face between both his hands and looked straight into his eyes.

“Listen to me; are you listening?”

Brian lifted an eyebrow, that expression was pure Kinney, and he couldn’t help but admire Justin for using it against him.

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

“You might have done that once upon a time, but you haven’t for a very long time. I’d even dare say that Michael has you on a much tighter reign than you have on him. He keeps reminding you of all the things he did for you when you were a teenager, how he was the only one you trusted with your problems with your father, how he and Deb helped you back then. That’s not something a true friend does; a true friend helps and never expects anything in return and never ever throws his help back in your face.”

Brian tried not to cringe at the things Justin was saying; he really didn’t want to face the fact that Michael might not be as good a friend as he had always thought he was. He sighed in defeat, recognizing that Justin was right. Michael only wanted Brian to act and react a certain way, never diverting from the script according to Michael. He nodded, even if he really didn’t want to face the fact that he might be losing his best friend through half of his life. That’s when he realized that he didn’t lose his best friend; he just substituted him for someone else. Justin really had become a much better friend to him over the last long while.

Brian leaned across the table to give his partner a kiss, and Justin smiled in surprise when Brian sat back down.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but what was that for?”

“For being my best friend.”

Brian smiled gently and Justin couldn’t help the bright smile blooming across his face at that.

”I’m glad you think so; partners are supposed to be best friends, I think.”

Justin shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his wine. Brian thought about it, and had to agree; it would probably make for a better partnership if you could be friends and not just lovers; it was what he had meant when he told Justin they were more than just lovers.

They finished their dinner and paid the bill before clasping hands on the way out the door. They kept their hands entwined as they walked to Fifth Avenue, just window shopping.

“We’ll come back here tomorrow so you can do some shopping, Brian.”

Justin winked at him and he had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

“Are you sure? This trip is for you.”

“No, this trip is for us. It’s your birthday and the bashing happened to the both of us. I might have been the one who was hit, but you can’t tell me it didn’t affect you, too.”

Brian held on to Justin’s hand just a little tighter when he mentioned the prom, thus proving Justin’s point.

“We are here for the both of us to make new and better memories of that day.”

Brian sighed, but gave in.

“Ok, tomorrow, we go shopping, but you are going to let me buy you some things, too.”

Justin was just about to object, but thought better of it. If they were really going to be partners, he had to let Brian take care of him the way he knew best, the way he showed he cared; by spending money. It was the only thing his father had ever wanted from him, and it was the only thing he could safely do to show the gang that he cared. If he had done it any other way, he would have been disbelieved or misunderstood.

“Deal, but I want to go to MoMA afterwards. If I can endure a morning of shopping, you can survive an afternoon looking at art.”

“Fair enough. Now, what are we going to do the rest of the evening?”

“If we are going to be up bright and early for you to go shopping, we better go straight to bed.”

Justin tried to keep a straight face, but at the look on Brian’s face, he cracked up.

“I never said anything about sleeping, Brian; I did promise you that we could fuck until it wasn’t your birthday anymore. We still have a couple of hours.”

Brian got a predatory look on his face and Justin knew he was in for an interesting ride.

“Well, Sunshine, what are we waiting for, then?”

Brian turned towards the hotel and Justin smiled knowingly all the way there. When they reached the hotel room, Brian grabbed Justin and threw him on the bed playfully and fell on top of him, only stopping himself with his arms when he was a few inches over Justin. He looked in his eyes and seemed to think about something very seriously. When he had made up his mind, he reached for the nightstand where they had placed the condoms and lube, took both, and gave them to Justin. He rolled off him and onto his stomach. For a second, Justin was floored, but then, he got into action.

He squirted some lube onto his fingers and carefully warmed it. He spread Brian’s legs a little further and circled his opening with a single finger. Brian’s breath hitched in his throat and he pushed his ass up a little. Justin kissed the small of his back and slowly pushed his finger in, just to the first knuckle; he knew, without a doubt, that Brian hadn’t bottomed since shortly before Justin left for LA. After a little while, he felt Brian relax, and pushed his finger in all the way. He found the prostate and massaged it gently. Brian groaned when he first hit it, and then, he started moaning, pushing back on the finger. Justin added a second finger, scissoring them a little before adding a third.

When Justin felt that Brian was sufficiently prepared, he pulled out his fingers, which elicited a disappointed groan, but he soon replaced them with his sheathed cock. Taking as long as he could handle, he pushed in, and then, stopped when he was in to the balls. He let Brian adjust until he pushed back against him a little. That’s when Justin started moving in and out, starting out slowly, but soon working up to a steady pace. He was in serious danger of cumming before Brian, and that was just not going to happen if he had anything to say about it. He reached under Brian and took hold of his cock and started stroking it in time with the thrusts of his hips, but soon changed the rhythm; that way, Brian never knew when he would move his hands next, or how.

After a few strokes, Brian was moaning loudly, and soon, Justin felt his ass constrict, and then, the cum spilled over his hand. That was the end of his self-control and he threw his head back, moaned loudly, and came into the condom.

He collapsed onto Brian’s back and he dropped all the way down onto his stomach. Justin stayed where he was until his breathing was coming a little more evenly, and then, he held on to the condom while rolling off. Brian still didn’t move, and when Justin came back from the bathroom with a damp cloth, he got a little worried.

“Are you ok, Brian?”

Brian was overwhelmed; Justin’s assumptions were correct, he hadn’t had a dick up his ass since Justin left. It wasn’t something he did very often anyway, and then, only with someone in town on business, or when he was out of town, himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it. In fact, he liked it a lot, but he had sacrificed that particular pleasure in his pursuit of his reputation, and he wasn’t ready to give that up. The first time Justin topped him, he resisted for a little while, until he thought better of it. He trusted Justin not to tell anybody. After that, it became easier.

“Oomph.” Brian rolled over before answering coherently. “I’m not sure. I think I blacked out there for a second. Damn, Sunshine, that was amazing.”

Justin smiled his signature smile and washed Brian’s torso off gently, threw the cloth on the floor and climbed into bed again.

“Happy birthday, partner.”

His smile grew cocky and Brian barked a laugh.

“Well, you can give me a birthday present like that every year if you want to.”

Justin smiled even brighter, even if Brian would have sworn it was impossible, he was so happy. That remark was the closest to a commitment from Brian he ever thought he would get.

“That’s a deal. As long as you want it, it’s yours.”

Brian took hold of Justin and pulled him down to him. Justin rested with his head on Brian’s shoulder and an arm thrown across his torso. Brian kissed him gently on the top of his head, and they fell asleep like that. They actually managed to make it to 12:03, and therefore, they really did fuck until it wasn’t Brian’s birthday anymore.


	10. Mornings

The next morning, Brian woke first. He looked at Justin and was amazed by the man next to him. It wasn’t often he had found anybody to top him properly, but Justin cared about his pleasure as much, if not more, than he cared about his own, which made him an excellent lover. And yes, Brian could admit it was love, at least to himself, if not to anybody else yet.

Justin was on his back, sheets just covering his legs and groin. He had one arm above his head and the other one across his torso. His hair was a mess and he had never looked more beautiful in Brian’s mind. He raked his eyes over him, wondering what it was that attracted him to him in the first place.

He had been standing there exuding innocence and light, and Brian had wanted both, wanted to be the one who took the innocence and inspired the light. He got over the second one fast, or he made himself get over it; he couldn’t let himself think things like that. The potential for hurt was too great. But the little twat refused to let go, and he couldn’t seem to stop fucking him at almost any given opportunity.

And he had been hurt, but not by Justin. In fact, Justin had been hurt far worse by him than he had ever been by Justin. He couldn’t quite understand why he still hung on, why he insisted he wanted to be with Brian, even after all that, but he was not about to object.

What he had been hurt by was what had been done to Justin, at his prom. That night would forever stand clear in Brian’s mind; he would never forget a single detail, not the sound of the bat swinging, not the smell of the blood mixed with the oil on the ground, not the feel of Justin’s blood on his face and hands, not the feel of the asphalt under his knees, not the sight of the blood draining from both his face and the wound, and not the taste of the blood on his lips. All his senses were on overdrive that night, and he would forever remember every single detail.

He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts; he didn’t want to think about that now. Justin was home, they were in New York and they were going to have a great day. He got out of bed slowly so as not to wake up his partner. He couldn’t help the self-deprecating sneer on his face at that; the man who swore to never get tied to anybody, to never fall in love, had a partner. What an utter fool he’d been to not want what he had with Justin.

He went into the other room, called room service to order some breakfast, and then, he went to take a shower. When he came out of the bathroom, there was a light knock on the door. He opened it to find a waiter with their food. The waiter eyed him interestedly, but he just shook his head. He didn’t feel like tricking on this trip; this was just for him and Justin, nobody else. He went back into the bedroom and Justin was still like he had left him.

He kissed him gently on the lips and smiled at the way he tried to brush it away at first. When he kissed him again, he woke up a little, and at the third, he kissed back.

“Mm, that’s a nice way to wake up. What time is it?”

“Breakfast time. Room service was already here; it’s all in the other room.”

Justin smiled and stretched a little before getting out of bed, putting on one of the hotel robes and joining Brian in the living room. He sat down and took off the lid of his tray. Brian had ordered him pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast, along with coffee and orange juice.

“This looks amazing; thank you.”

He leaned over the table to give Brian a little kiss.

“You are welcome. I couldn’t have you fainting in one of the boutiques we are going to, now could I?”

Justin knew he was full of shit, not that Brian didn’t worry, but because he had ordered the breakfast to do something nice, he’d just never admit to that.

After breakfast, Justin showered, and then, they left, with no kind of morning sex at all. He was a little worried, but figured they’d catch up that night.


	11. Meetings

Over the next few hours, they went to all the high-end stores and Brian bought two new Armani suits, with four shirts and ties, two new Gucci belts and cufflinks, and two pairs of Prada shoes for himself. For Justin, he bought a Hugo Boss suit, with two shirts and ties, a Gucci belt and cufflinks, and a pair of Prada boots and shoes. He was tired of always seeing Justin in his trainers.

Justin just let him have his fun, tried on what he was told to try on, and just looked forward to MoMA.

When they had bought it all, Justin thought it was over, but man, was he ever wrong. Now came the really fun part, according to Brian. Now, it had to be fitted at the tailor’s. Normally, he would have it all shipped to his own tailor back in the Pitts, but this was New York and he knew of some really good tailors. They went to one and both of them were sent to the dressing room to put on their new suits.

It was in that dressing room, which was as big as Justin’s dorm room in LA, that the theory of waiting with the sex for that night was disproven. When Justin had taken off his clothes and was about to put on the suit, Brian stopped him, went down to his knees in front of him, pulled down his underwear and took his cock in his mouth. Justin moaned and his cock hardened instantly at the feel of Brian’s wet, warm mouth surrounding it.

Brian used all his considerable skill to get Justin off embarrassingly fast, but Justin didn’t really mind all that much. He was enjoying it way too much for that. Brian stood up with a smug look on his face and Justin couldn’t help but smile at him. When he had caught his breath, he went to his knees and returned the favor. Justin didn’t want it over with as fast; he loved the feel and taste of Brian’s cock in his mouth, so he took his time. He brought Brian to the brink several times, he was moaning freely, and at the end, he was incoherently begging to get off. Justin got to his feet, returning Brian’s smug smile from earlier. Brian pulled him into his arms and kissed him deeply.

Justin came out of the dressing room first and saw another customer had entered the shop. Justin blushed a little when he looked at him with a knowing smirk, which turned into surprised recognition when Brian came out.

“Brian Kinney, is that you?”

Brian looked politely bored.

“Do I know you?”

At first, the guy looked a little offended, but then, he looked at Justin and he thought he knew what the problem was.

“Adam Lyons from Kennedy and Collins; we talked about a possible job opening at our firm about a year ago?”

Brian still looked like he didn’t know the man, even if he remembered him perfectly. There was no chance that he was going to forget that embarrassment any time soon.

“Still not ringing any bells. I get so many job offers on a regular basis…”

“We met at an award ceremony. I gave you the adman of the year award.”

“Oh, right, thanks.”

Brian still looked mildly bored and like he still didn’t remember him. Now, Adam was pissed; nobody forgot about him like that.

“You fucked me in the balcony afterwards!”

“Yeah, that happens a lot, too.”

Now, Adam looked like he was about to explode, so Justin thought he’d better step in.

“I think I remember something about that. I think they promoted from within or something like that, remember? We talked about what a loss it was for them.”

Brian was so damn thankful for Justin right then, for the fact that he never reacted in front of one of Brian’s former tricks, for his brilliant memory and for recognizing Brian’s need to not lose face in front of this toad.

“Ah, yeah, I think you’re right. Nice to see you again, Adam, was it?”

“Yeah, Adam Lyons. You still with Ryder?”

“I’m a senior partner in Vanguard now, actually.”

He still sounded somewhat bored with the conversation and turned to the tailor, a clear indicator that the conversation was over.

“My partner and I are ready for you now.”

The tailor hurried forward and Adam recognized it for the brush off that it was and left.

“Fuck, I never thought I’d see him again. Thanks for the help, Sunshine.”

Brian gave Justin a grateful kiss.

“No problem, good thing I know you so well.”

Justin didn’t explain that remark, but he didn’t have to; Brian knew what he meant.

The tailor measured and pinned the suits, Brian’s first, then Justin’s, and then Brian’s second one. Brian gave him his address and asked that they be send there along with the bill. They left the shop and went just around the corner to a little café for some lunch. After lunch was over, Brian hailed a cab to take them to the MoMA.

Once there, it was Justin’s turn to get excited; he was looking forward to the exhibits and to showing Brian some of his favorite pieces that were in the museum. Brian loved the look on Justin’s face; he looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

They walked around and Justin talked a mile a minute about all the pieces and the artists. Brian knew without a doubt that he had chosen the right path, even if Justin had his doubts at one time.

When they entered one of the temporary exhibits, Justin tensed up a little at the sight of one of the other visitors. The guy, on the other hand, lit up when he was Justin.

“Justin, you’re back from LA. What are you doing in New York?”

“Hello, Ethan, yes I’m back. I’m in New York with my partner. Brian, this is Ethan; he’s a music major at PIFA. Ethan this is Brian, my partner.”

Ethan looked shocked at the term, but recovered enough to reach his hand out to take Brian’s outstretched one.

“Ethan is the violinist Mel and Lindz took me to see on my birthday last year, remember?”

“Oh, right, I remember.”

It was only because Justin knew him so well that he saw the slight change in the expression in Brian’s eyes at the mention of Justin’s birthday. Justin was happy that Brian apparently did do regrets, or at least that he regretted the way he behaved that day.

“How was LA and the school there?”

“It was fine; the courses were interesting and I actually decided on my major.”

“Yeah, you going to go for animation?”

Ethan was trying to let Brian know how much he and Justin had talked and shared; he wanted the blond, had wanted him since he saw him the first time at the recital. He actually thought he had a chance until he decided to go away for four months. He had hoped that he would have gotten a call once he came back home.

“No, I decided to go into advertising. The courses were extremely interesting and it would make it possible for Brian and I to work together some day in the future.”

Brian relaxed a little at that. He had been worried that the chin-ratted fiddler seemed to have spent much time with Justin, not that you could tell by looking at him; he was too experienced at hiding his true feelings for that. He was happy that Justin didn’t seem overly happy to see the fiddler, but only answered his questions, and didn’t ask any in return.

Ethan was appalled; Justin had told him that he and his boyfriend had some problems, and that was one of the reasons Ethan had thought he might have a chance with the blond, but now, he introduced him as his partner, not just boyfriend, and talked about working together in the future. He guessed he should have known he didn’t really have a chance when all his letters to the blond had been answered with one word responses.

“Well, it was nice seeing you, Ethan, but we’ve got to get going.”

Ethan looked disappointed, but said his goodbyes before Justin took Brian’s hand and they left.


	12. Truths

They left the museum, never having seen the last exhibit. They were quiet all the way in the cab to the hotel and Justin was dreading the conversation he knew would take place once there. When he had opened the door, Brian let Justin in first, followed and grabbed him around the waist from behind.

“I’m glad you decided to go to LA instead of with him,”

he whispered in Justin’s ear. Justin was floored, quickly turning around in Brian’s arms and looking up at him.

“How did you know?”

“I’m on to you, too, Sunshine. I know you hated the way things were between us; Ian seemed like the kind of guy who would say all the right words and give you all the romantic gestures your heart desired. I just want to know one thing. Did you fuck him?”

“No, Brian, I promise, the only time I ever broke our rules was with that frat guy I kissed. Never again after that. I was even home by three the few times I went out in LA.”

Brian nodded, pulled Justin to him and rested his chin atop Justin’s head.

“Me, too, Sunshine, me, too. I only ever broke one when I was home after three because I was in jail when Michael had a meltdown over his mother dating Horvath.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? She still sees him?”

“Yes, and it’s really good, I think. Michael even had to admit that she deserves a life. She seems happy with him and he’s come around about the gay community, so that’s a good thing. We can always use a friendly face on the police force.”

Justin nodded.

“That’s true. I’m happy for her; she deserves some fun.”

“Yeah, she does. She’s been alone for way too long, it’s not good for her; it might close up, otherwise.”

Brian had his tongue in his cheek and Justin cringed.

“Eew, Brian, I don’t want to think about Deb having sex; it might make me soft for a really long time.”

“We can’t have that; I have plans for you, and you definitely need to be hard for them.”

Brian leered at Justin and he felt himself shiver a little at the look on his partner’s face. He loved when Brian looked like that; it usually made for an interesting night for him. Brian was still holding on to Justin, and now, he slowly started to undress him. When Justin made to reciprocate, he just shook his head; he wanted to do this, he wanted to make sure Justin never regretted his decision to not leave him for the fiddler. He chose to go away to school, but still, he hung in there for Brian to realize that he really didn’t want to have Justin leave him, even if he had made him believe that he did, or at least that he wasn’t prepared to do or say any of the things that could make him stay.

After four months without him, Brian realized that not only had he gotten used to having him around, he actually preferred it that way. He loved coming home and not finding an empty loft; he found that out the day before his birthday when Justin was waiting for him when he came home. It was a great feeling, especially since he always seems happy to see him. He had never tried that before; no one in the Kinney household had ever been happy to see him when he came home.

When Justin was naked, Brian walked him backwards to the bed and pushed him down gently. He took off his own clothes, slowly, giving Justin a show. Justin smiled, enjoying the sillier, happier side of his partner, a side that only seldom came out. Once naked, he laid down next to Justin and ran a hand from his neck, down his torso, bypassing his cock, and proceeded down his legs to his feet. He gave him a light foot rub, to take away some of the soreness from all the walking they had done that day. He continued rubbing his calves, quads, thighs and ended at his inner thighs.

He leaned down and licked from the back of his knees to the place where thigh meets groin. Justin was breathing heavily now and his cock was hard as steel. Bypassing it once again, Brian only blew lightly on the cock on his way up. He licked and kissed all of Justin’s stomach, and then, continued upward and reached the nipples, which he licked around before taking them into his mouth. One of them he sucked on and the other one he gently bit. Justin arched up to get more of his breast into Brian’s mouth, but he just continued up. He licked a line from the collarbone to just behind the right ear. He blew in the ear and then followed the rim with his tongue. He licked from the ear to Justin’s mouth and gave him a light kiss before moving down again.

This time, when he got to Justin’s cock, he took it into his mouth and sucked on the head. Justin bucked off the bed and moaned loudly. Brian smiled around the cock in his mouth; he loved the sounds Justin made in bed and tried, at every opportunity, to get him to make them. He opened his throat and swallowed the rest of the cock down all the way. He swallowed and Justin mewled. Brian continued to alternate between sucking, and humming and swallowing around the head. When Justin came, he groaned Brian’s name loudly and Brian had a hard time swallowing the cum, he was smiling so much in satisfaction.

Brian crawled up and laid down on the pillow next to Justin, waiting for him to recover. Once he did, he turned his head and looked at Brian.

“Wow, what was that for?”

“What are you talking about? I can’t give you a blowjob without it being for something?”

“Yes, you can, but that was definitely a reward blowjob. You always take extra time and effort with those.”

Brian looked at him in shock; he didn’t know that was the case.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really, now quit stalling and tell me what I did to deserve that; that way, I can do it again.”

He smiled brightly and Brian couldn’t help but smile back. That particular smile, the one that was just for him, always had that effect on him.

“That was for making the decision that you did.”

Brian tried to look away, but Justin took his chin in his hand and held him so that he could look into his eyes.

“It was the right decision for me, too; that made it an easy choice. I didn’t particularly want to lose you, and I felt I was on the verge of doing just that; something had to be done.”

He said it matter of factly, and Brian admired that courage in him. He figured it warranted the same kind of courage in himself.

“I do love you, Justin, you know that right?”

The smile on Justin’s face was as bright as the one he gave Brian in the parking garage and it took his breath away for a second.

“I know, Brian, I love you, too.”

Brian smiled at him and held him a little tighter. Tomorrow would be the first anniversary of the bashing and Brian didn’t plan on them leaving the hotel room all day. He told Justin this and he had absolutely no objections.

They spent all of Saturday and a good part of Sunday in bed, only stopping to get something from room service when they needed recharging. They had the hotel wash the clothes they had been wearing on Friday, so when they checked out Sunday night, they did have on clean clothes, despite the fact that they only had one set of clothes with them, each.

Brian drove the Jeep home while Justin told him about the courses he would have to take over the next three years. He hadn’t had a chance to tell him that earlier that weekend.

When they came home, there were twenty-two messages on the answering machine. They had deliberately turned off their cell phones and hadn’t turned them on again. They had a feeling there would be equally as many messages on those. Thirteen of the messages were from Michael, five from Deb, one from Lindz, one from Emmett, and the last one was from Jennifer.

They turned on their cells and it turned out that Justin only had four, three from his mother and one irate one from Michael, accusing him of kidnapping Brian in order to prevent all of them from seeing him on his birthday. When Brian heard that one, he looked baffled.

“Why does he talk to you like that? I thought the two of you were, if not friends, then, at least friendly. And why would he think that you could make me do anything I don’t want to do?”

“We are friendly, unless it has to do with you; then, Michael becomes irrational. He thinks that I have some kind of power over you, and he constantly tells me to let you make your own decisions.”

Justin shrugged his shoulders; it wasn’t a big deal to him, he was used to it. Brian looked surprised, but then, the look changed to anger.

“What the hell? How long has this been going on?”

“He’s always done that. He doesn’t seem to realize that you want to spend time with someone who isn’t him, or a fast trick, in and out. He’s so used to having you almost all to himself that it never even occurs to him that you might want to be with me without all of them around.”

Brian checked his own cell messages and they were all nine from Michael. He sounded like he was really worried about Brian and his wellbeing.

“I better call him before he turns up here.”

“You can be sure he’s already been here at least a couple of times to see if we are here, and I’ve just turned off the phone to prevent him from getting in contact with you.”

“What? He lets himself in if I don’t answer the door and the Jeep isn’t here?”

“Sure, I’ve been home a few times when he didn’t even ring the bell before letting himself in. He was extremely surprised to see me each time. It’s like he forgets that I live here from day to day.”

Now, Brian just looked enraged.

“Fuck, we have to change the lock and the code. Why the fuck haven’t you told me that before?”

“And what? Get between you and Michael? I have more sense than that. I just figured that now that you know some of it, you might as well know the rest.”


	13. Confrontations

Brian went to find the phonebook to look up locksmiths while Justin called his mother. He had called to tell her that they were leaving for a night, but he never thought to tell her that they were staying for the weekend.

He told her about the new suit Brian had bought him and the exhibitions they saw at the MoMA. He could hear the disappointment in her voice when he told her how well he and Brian were getting along, and that didn’t help his already bad mood.

The bad mood wasn’t because of Michael, like Brian probably thought; he had learned to ignore Michael’s rants a long time ago. What had him really pissed was something he’d never tell Brian, because he knew he wouldn’t understand why it bothered Justin so much because it was something he had gotten used to.

All the messages from Deb had been in the same tune. They had gone something like this:

“What did you do to my kid now, asshole? He’s been complaining that he can’t get a hold of you and that Sunshine is keeping you from him. Did you get him involved in one of your orgies?”

What really ticked Justin off was the fact that one, she somehow made it Brian’s fault that he wasn’t home for a SURPRISE he didn’t, by its very nature, know anything about, And two, that she assumed that he was off getting his dick sucked and had taken Justin with him.

Brian found the number for a locksmith and programmed it into his phone. He reminded himself to call them first thing in the morning. He wondered how many times Michael had been in his loft without his knowledge. It pissed him off that Michael felt entitled to just let himself in, even after Justin moved in. Like Justin said, it was like he couldn’t remember that Brian didn’t live alone anymore, or maybe, that he just didn’t accept it.

Brian knew that Justin was pissed at Deb, he even knew why and that she would get a large uncensored piece of his mind next time he saw her. Brian knew he should probably be pissed at that, insist that he could take care of himself, but he really didn’t care how he was supposed to react. The fact was it made him feel good to know that Justin cared enough to get pissed on his behalf. Then, there was the fact that Deb needed to be told that she was way off base, and she’d be less inclined to go off on her Sunshine than on him.

For now, Brian was just tired; he had driven five hours from New York. All he wanted to do was take his partner to bed and fuck him into the mattress.

They got ready for bed and climbed in. They automatically reached for each other and started to kiss. A little later, Brian was on his back with his head at the end of the bed, and Justin on top in the opposite direction. Justin had Brian’s cock in his mouth and Brian was rimming him. When the door opened, neither of them heard it, they were so far gone. Just as they both came, they heard the most unwelcome sound.

“Brian, can’t you stop fucking that trick and throw him out? I need to talk to you.”

Brian turned his head and shot Michael a death glare.

“Justin stopped being a trick a fucking long time ago, and what the fuck are you doing just walking in here like you own the place?”

During all this, Justin had crawled off Brian and covered the both of them with the duvet. Brian smiled at him in thanks and Justin smiled back. Michael looked shocked to see Justin there.

“I thought you’d gotten away from him by now. Isn’t it enough that he ruined your birthday for you? Did he have to ruin the rest of the weekend, too?”

Brian stared at his long time friend as if he were a stranger. Once he had recovered a little, he stood up, intent on bodily throwing Michael out if necessary. He stopped to put on some underwear when he saw the hungry look on Michael’s face at the sight of his naked body. He took hold of one of Michael’s arms and led him to the door.

“Listen to me, Michael, are you listening?” Michael nodded, looking puzzled at the expression on Brian’s face. “I took Justin to New York for the weekend specifically to get away from all of you and your stupid idea of a fun surprise. I wanted to spend some time alone with my partner, who has been gone for close to four months. I wanted to spend MY birthday the way I wanted to, and we both wanted to make some different memories of the date of the prom. The fact that none of you clowns, with the exception of Emmett, could figure that out is a testament to your utter egoism. You better never let me hear you talk to or about Justin the way you just did, and like you did on his voicemail. He has never done anything to you, and this animosity you have against him stops now. He’s my partner and he’s not going anywhere, is that clear?”

Michael was so shocked at the sheer volume of words coming from Brian’s mouth, let alone what words, that he only nodded and didn’t object when Brian gently pushed him out the door and closed it.

Brian stood with his back to the door after he locked and bolted it. He didn’t move for close to five minutes, and when he did, he went to the bedroom closet, opened it, and was about to take out some clothes.

“Don’t.”

Brian turned around and looked at Justin sitting in the bed.

“Don’t prove them all right.”

He reached out his hand and Brian looked at it, then at Justin’s face. He felt like he was literally losing his childhood friend and he needed some pain management, but Justin was right; he didn’t want to prove them all right by doing the exact thing they all thought he had been doing all weekend. He walked the two steps to the bed and took Justin’s hand.

He saw relief but no surprise, and that surprised him; at the same time, as it pleased him; he was glad Justin had that kind of faith in him, when no one else did, except, surprisingly, Emmett. His message was the only one not reaming him out for missing his birthday or corrupting Justin. His message was actually for Justin.

“Hi, baby, I hope you and the ‘not so big bad’ are having a fabulous time celebrating his birthday and making some divine memories of that awful date on Saturday. Call me sometime after you come back. Tootles, y’all.”

In fact, it seemed as if Emmett was the only one who remembered that Justin lived there, and that he might be there when Brian listened to the messages, or that he might even be the one to press the button. Lindsay’s message had been so falsely, sugary sweet it was a miracle that the machine hadn’t drowned in honey.

“Oh, Brian, it really isn’t all that bad to get older. You know I’d never try to change you; you should do what you want to, but both Mel and I feel that you shouldn’t bring Justin with you. We are worried he’s too young to make that kind of decision, and he loves you so much that he’ll do whatever you do. Well, give me a call when you are sober. Gus wants to see you, and I’m sure Justin would like to see him, too.”

Brian had seen how offended Justin had been, and he couldn’t really blame him. She had made it sound like he was a mindless, lovesick puppy who just blindly followed Brian around. She also said that she didn’t want him to change, but at the same time, she didn’t want him to bring Justin down with him, or that was roughly the meaning behind the words.

Justin lay back down, pulling Brian with him. Brian put his head on Justin’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. It calmed him down, just as it had done ever since he came out of the hospital.

“You know Deb is going to be over here like a bat out of hell defending her poor hapless offspring just as soon as she can, right?”

Brian chuckled at that. Justin was right, of course, but he didn’t much care. He was glad he had stayed home, though; he would have hated that Justin would have defended him in his absence.

He lifted his head and gave Justin a little kiss before laying his head next to Justin’s on the pillow.

“We can just hope that she has the night shift; that way, she’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

Justin smiled and got comfortable against Brian. It was only half an hour after that that the pounding on the door and the yelling began.

“Open the door, asshole, I know you’re in there; the fucking Jeep is out front.”

Brian had fallen asleep, but Justin was still awake. In fact, he was up, since he knew that Deb had had the breakfast shift, just as she did every Sunday. He opened the door and walked out before Deb had a chance to barge in. He closed the door carefully behind him before he turned to Deb with anger blazing in his eyes.

“What are you doing here, banging down the house, screaming like a fucking banshee in the middle of the night?”

Deb looked surprised for a second before her natural mother indignation kicked in.

“Don’t you talk to me like that, Sunshine. I’m here to talk to the asshole in there. Now, let me by.”

“No, he’s sleeping and I’m not going to wake him up. He has work in the morning. Besides, I think I know why you’re here. Your 31-year-old son went running to Mommy when his friend didn’t do what he wanted him to do.”

Justin was livid; he really resented that Michael had run to Deb, but even more that Deb felt the need to come to the loft, defending him.

“What are you talking about? Michael told me that Brian threw him out of the loft, yelling at him, and after the way he just ignored everybody this weekend, he had no fucking right to act like the asshole that he is.”

“As usual, he ran with only half the fucking story so as to put himself in the role of the victim with Brian as the villain.” Justin kept his voice low; he didn’t want to risk waking up Brian. “Michael came in, not even knocking, by the way, while we were fucking. He told Brian to get rid of the trick since he needed to talk to him. When he saw that it was me, Michael told Brian that he thought he’d gotten rid of me by now. He didn’t think it was fair that I had ruined not only Brian’s birthday, but the whole weekend, too.”

Deb looked surprised for a second and was about to say something when Justin continued.

“Brian informed him that not only didn’t he want to get rid of me, he was the one who took me to New York for the weekend; not only for his birthday, but also to get away from the memories of the prom, since it was the anniversary on Saturday.”

At that, Deb looked, first surprised, then guilty, and finally, disbelieving.

“Are you telling me that Brian did all that just for you? He didn’t do any of it just to mess with everybody’s plans?”

“How was he supposed to know that there were any firm plans? It’s not like any of them told him. He wanted to get away from any potential great ideas like the one from last year, but he had no idea that there were, but not because HE’s an asshole, but because they are.”

Justin looked pointedly at Deb, and she had to agree; Brian really didn’t think his birthday last year was all that funny, and she didn’t either. She thought about it and conceded the point that he hadn’t known of any definite plans, but Justin had.

“Are you telling me that you didn’t tell him about their plans?”

“Of course I told him, when we were half way to the city. And for the record, he didn’t think it was funny, either.”

All Deb’s anger had dissipated, but she wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“Did he have to talk to Michael like that, though?”

“Like what, Deb? You didn’t hear how he talked; you only have Michael’s account of what happened. And he’s never been the most reliable source when it comes to Brian.”

Deb was just about to refute that statement when she thought better of it.

“Ok, Sunshine, I’m sorry I came barging over here like this.”

“Yeah, well, you need to let Michael handle his own fights; otherwise, he’ll be a whiny little momma’s boy for the rest of his life, and that can’t be good for him.”

Deb looked insulted, but Justin looked her straight in the eye, and she saw the truth of that statement there. It really was time to let go a little, even if it would be hard.


	14. Changes

Justin watched as Deb got in the elevator and started down before he opened the door and went back inside. When he turned around, he jumped and gave a very un-manly squeak.

”Jesus, Brian, you scared me. How long have you been standing there?”

‘There’ was just inside the door, where Brian had been following the conversation going on out on the landing.

“Since about 10 seconds after you opened the door and went outside. The banging woke me up, but I guess you were faster than me.”

“Yeah, well, I know that Deb has the morning shift on Sunday and that she wouldn’t wait until tomorrow to come storming over here. I got up and put on some clothes as soon as you fell asleep.”

Justin shrugged and Brian looked pensive for a couple of seconds.

“Do you think she got the message?”

Justin thought about it, and then, he nodded.

“Yeah, I think she did. She looked like she did, at least.”

Brian nodded once and then put his hand behind Justin’s neck and pulled him close to his body. Justin looked up at him with a puzzled expression on his face.

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

Brian was honestly confused; he really didn’t see what he could have to be mad about.

“Because I said all those things to Deb.”

Then, it hit him: he had never defended himself against any of Deb’s ‘Brian’s an asshole’ tirades before. The reason for that being that she’s his maw; she’s the one who kept him sane when things got to be too bad at home when he was a teenager. The thing is: Brian was tired of everything being his fault, tired of Mikey always being right, even when he was wrong.

“I’m not mad at you, Sunshine; she needed to be told. There was a better chance of her actually listening when it came from you than if I’d told her.”

Justin nodded, because that was definitely true. Deb was usually deaf to anything Brian had to say.

“Let’s go back to bed, Sunshine, I have to get up in a few hours.”

They walked up the steps to the bedroom, took off their clothes and went back to bed; Brian on his back with Justin’s head on his shoulder and their legs entwined. They fell asleep fairly quickly, both content to be in each other’s arms.

The next morning, they go to the diner for breakfast and are assaulted almost the second they walk through the door.

“Look, asshole, it’s one thing to drown yourself in your self-pity about getting older, but you shouldn’t bring Justin down with you.”

Mel was on a rampage, and when Justin got in her face, she moved involuntarily back in the seat.

“You know what, Mel? I’m tired of your sanctimonious bullshit. What Brian and I do is none of yours or anybody else’s fucking business. I think you should probably learn all the facts before you go off on people.”

“Baby, I know you love him, but he’s an asshole who thinks with his dick.”

“Let me get this straight. You believe that Brian went on some drinking, drugging and fucking binge this weekend and took me with him, is that right?”

Both Mel and Lindz nodded. Emmett shook his head at them and Ted kept suspiciously quiet.

“You both don’t know shit. Brian and I went to New York, partially to celebrate his birthday and partially to get away from Pittsburgh and the bad memories of prom; it was the one year anniversary on Saturday, in case you’ve forgotten. So you can just go stick your false concern where the sun don’t shine.”

Both of the women stared at him, and then at Brian, who just shrugged.

“Hey, I didn’t want to be in town for whatever you idiots came up with for my birthday, either, so, I had an extra reason to skip town.”

They were both still speechless.

“Don’t tell me you had forgotten about the anniversary of the prom?”

Emmett was disappointed in the two women; he had thought higher of them than that. They both looked extremely guilty as they nodded.

“Jesus, even I remembered that.”

Ted shook his head and scooted in to make room for Justin. Brian took a chair and sat at the end, not really interested in sitting next to Melanie in the booth.

They ate breakfast while Justin told Ted and Emmett about what they had done in New York; Emmett gushed, predictably, and Ted looked like he’d like a weekend like that himself.

After breakfast, Brian drove Justin back to the loft and went to work. He had been there less than an hour when Cynthia buzzed him.

“Brian, there’s a Ben Bruckner here to see you.”

“Send him in.”

Brian rolled his eyes; first his mother, now his boyfriend; would Michael never learn to defend himself? Ben walked in and Cynthia called him again.

“Should I have security standing by? He looks pissed.”

“That’s ok, Cyn, thanks.”

“So what can I do for you, Professor?”

“You can tell me where you get off pushing Michael around like that?”

“Like what?”

That stopped Ben short for a couple of seconds before he answered Brian’s question.

“He told me what you did, Brian; you grabbed him and dragged him out the door.”

“True, but did he tell you why? Or does that even matter to anybody?”

“What are you talking about? He just wanted to talk to you about why you skipped out on his party for you, but you just wanted to get back to the guy you were fucking.”

“First of all, the guy I was fucking was Justin, my partner, not a random trick. Second, I didn’t skip out on his party for me; I didn’t know that there was a party. Third, he never even knocked on the door when he came over, just opened the door and walked right in. He started ordering me around, telling me to get rid of the trick because he needed to talk to me. I don’t take kindly to people ordering me around like that, and the way he talked about Justin; that was just the final straw.”

Ben looked dumbfounded.

“How did he talk about Justin?”

Brian told him what had happened when Michael barged in at the loft and exactly what Brian had told him.

“So, naturally, he goes straight to his mother, who then comes storming over to the loft in the middle of the night. When that didn’t go quite like he had hoped, he told you. The sad thing is that the both of you feel the need to defend poor hapless little Mikey instead of letting him deal with his own problems.”

Ben sat on the couch in Brian’s office with a thud.

“You’re right; I didn’t even hesitate, just barged over here.”

“Michael does victim so well; he’s had a lot of years of practice. I’m as much to blame as anybody, since I’ve let him, never once standing up for myself when Deb blamed something Michael had done on me; but this time, he went too far; he got Justin involved, and that I won’t stand for. It’s time Michael learns to take responsibility, maybe even grow up and not act like a spoiled brat.”

Ben nodded slowly.

“I’ll talk to him. I’m not sure it’ll do much good, but I’ll try.”

With that, he got up and left Brian’s office.

The next year saw a lot of changes in the lives of the family. Deb and Ben both talked to Michael and tried to get him to see that Brian had a right to a life that didn’t involve Michael. Mel and Lindz learned that Justin wouldn’t stand for them badmouthing Brian when he was around; and he didn’t particularly care who else was present, with the exception of Gus. He never said a bad word about either woman in front of Gus; but he would take them aside and ream them out if he heard them say anything bad about the boy’s father in front of him.

Brian tricked less, he didn’t completely stop, but then, neither did Justin. He started his second year at PIFA and got an internship at Vanguard. Nobody at the office ever discovered the personal relationship between the partner in the firm and the intern.

They went back to New York for Brian’s birthday and the second anniversary of the prom. While there, Justin asked Brian to marry him. Brian said yes!


End file.
